Jennifer Egan on Winning the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Jennifer Egan, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, has another prize to add to her mantle: it was announced today that she’s won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her book “A Visit from the Goon Squad.” Speakeasy talked with Egan on the phone from her Brooklyn house just a few minutes after she heard the news.

The Wall Street Journal: Congratulations! How does it feel? When did you find out?

Jennifer Egan: It’s absolutely nutty to win something like this. I feel weird. I wish I had something more articulate to say. It seems so fantastical, like I’ve exited from real life. I found out 20 minutes ago. I was just sitting down to lunch in a restaurant and my phone rang. I burst into tears and told the waitress I had received a piece of news and that I had to leave. She told me she was sorry and I said “no, it’s good!” I went straight home. It’s unreal.

It’s a pretty bold choice on behalf of the committee. Do you think this points to the direction it’s heading in for fiction?

I think they’ve been really eclectic in their choices. Last year they elevated a work [Tinkers by Paul Harding] that hadn’t gotten much attention, that in certain ways had a very quiet feeling to it, though it was very fine. Junot Diaz won, too. I would say their to credit that they’ve honored a pretty wide spectrum of books. It would be a little self-involved to think they’re heading in a new direction because of me. It feels so iconic. There’s something very strange about associating me with that prize. I had hoped for it in a more directed way as a journalist. Somehow as a journalist you know there are Pulitzers out there and you can work hard and get one. To win it for Fiction seems unbelievable.

The book takes place across multiple platforms. Some people have called it post-post modern. Do you subscribe to those types of labels? Do you feel like the prize validates your efforts?

Isn’t post-post modernity just convention? Just plain verisimilitude? It’s incredible that this idiosyncratic book has gotten so much attention, but the fear that it wouldn’t didn’t ever stop me. I haven’t worried too much about getting pats on my head. That’s why it’s so shocking that it worked out for me. You can get all that for this type of book? Amazing. I’m sort of stunned that this book has moved so many people so deeply. I definitely thought it would have a narrower appeal. The book has become a little bit mysterious to me. I feel like I need to go back and reread it. I feel almost like an outsider.

Pieter M. Van Hattem

Jennifer Egan

Is it sort of uncanny? In the sense that it’s both familiar and unfamiliar?

Yes, in the Freudian sense, exactly. But it’s uncanny in a delightful way.

Do you feel pressure to whip out a new bag of literary tricks? Or can you just go back to writing regular prose without a PowerPoint chapter, for example.

The only way I know how to work is to move away from what I’ve already done. To start imitating myself – I hope that doesn’t happen until I’m really old.

Over the past year, there’s been a debate about female and male writers and how they come off in the press. Franzen made clear that “Freedom” was going to be important, while others say that Allegra Goodman was too quiet about “The Cookbook Collector.” Do you think female writers have to start proclaiming, “OK, my book is going to be the book of the century”?

Anyone can say anything, that’s easy. My focus is less on the need for women to trumpet their own achievements than to shoot high and achieve a lot. What I want to see is young, ambitious writers. And there are tons of them. Look at “The Tiger’s Wife.” There was that scandal with the Harvard student who was found to have plagiarized. But she had plagiarized very derivative, banal stuff. This is your big first move? These are your models? I’m not saying you should say you’ve never done anything good, but I don’t go around saying I’ve written the book of the century. My advice for young female writers would be to shoot high and not cower.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.